CAMDEN — During the past three weeks’ school closure, Ron’s Pizza in Camden offered free lunches to the children of Preble County. At the local business, students are able to get an extra small pizza, mini corn dogs, or half a sandwich with a salad for no charge between the hours of 11 a.m. and noon during the week.
The first week the business provided 240 free lunches and the second week it provided 202 students with free lunches. According to co-owner Brandy Crank, Ron’s will “most likely” continue providing meals throughout the extended school closure order.
“Initially, it was just going to be the three weeks, that’s what we said. Then [the closure] got extended longer and we’re trying to figure out if that is something that [we want to extend]. We probably will, we will extend it another two weeks,” she said.
Owners Brandy and Jeremy Crank wanted to give back to the community in this way, because they were worried about what the students of Preble Shawnee school district would do without school lunches. However, the program has since been extended to all of Preble County, when the two saw the interest.
“We figured some of the kids relied on school lunches to eat during the day and they weren’t going to have much when schools got closed down,” Jeremy Crank said. “This is mainly for the kids, to make sure they don’t go hungry.”
“The community has been awesome. We’ve had people come in from Richmond, Indiana, to eat with us and support what we’ve been doing for the kids,” Brandy Crank said. “I want more people to know about it — more than just the Shawnee area.
“It is open to Preble County, not that we would turn any student down. We want to make sure there aren’t any kids out there who relied on those free lunches and don’t know they can come here and get a lunch [during the week].
Both Brandy and Jeremy Crank thanked the community for their support of this project. More information on Ron’s Pizza can be found on Facebook, at ronspizzahouse.com, or by contacting 937-452-3201.
